First Round Comments: CA Championship

We all knew Doral was tough, but man did the course eat up the players today. Charl Schwartzel leads at five under after an extremely well played round which included no bogeys. Nearly half of the field was over par on day one, and the wind played a huge factor.

Many players succumbed to the closing stretch of holes, especially 18. Vijay Singh double bogeyed the final hole to fall from the lead back to four under. Ernie Els also sits at four under and also struggled with the 18th, bogeying the treacherous par four. However, both of these big names are sitting in a very good position after the first round. Its rather hard to believe that it was only a few years ago that those two belonged in the heralded "Big Five" atop the world rankings. It looked back then as if those five players (Woods, Mickelson, Singh, Goosen, Els) were on another stratosphere on the PGA Tour. Alas, no longer.

Robert Allenby could have had a mind boggling round today as he was eight under through 12. However, he stumbled and staggered home like Anthony Kim coming back from a late night exursion, bogeying his last four holes. However, he still sits at four under. (I kid, of course. AK is the man.)

Speaking of the young American, Kim had his usual up and down round: four birdies to go along with three bogeys. As great of a talent he is, he really needs to achieve some sort of consistency if he truly wants to be one of the best on tour.

Phil Mickelson also carded a one under 71, but has yet again confounded me with the clubs in his bag. Mickelson carried two drivers today, for whatever reason he claims, yet only hit three fairways the entire day. I know it was a tough driving day with the wind, but is it really necessary to carry two drivers? Of course, I wouldn't have a problem if he justified it with his play, but three fairways is unacceptable for a ball striker of his caliber.

This reminds me of the 2008 U.S. Open when he carried five wedges in the third round, yet was not able to advance the ball from 50 yards in over the false front on the par five 13th at Torrey Pines. Phil attempted the same spinning lob wedge three times, failing to reach the green all three times, and ended up making a 9. I'm not sure what to make of these situations (and they've happened quite often) when Phil makes a very questionable decision that probably results from his stubborness. You would think he would learn from his mistakes, but here we are again, with Phil having another one of his "Phil" momements. To be fair however, for every head scratching decision he's made, he's pulled off an inconceivably amazing shot no one would ever think of (look at the 18th hole of the 2009 Northern Trust Open).

Again, with the devilish nature of this course, the leaderboard can flutuate dramatically with many possible errors and mistakes lurking out there.

Here are first round highlights courtesy of PGATour.com: